Born on June 26, 1903, William Lee Conley Broonzy, aka Big Bill Broonzy, was a giant of the blues. Cutting his first sides for Paramount in 1927, an extensive stretch of recordings followed across the next two decades. After a break in the late 1940s, he experienced a career resurrection that lasted until his untimely death in 1958, a sustained second wind that carried him to Europe, where he cut records for the Vogue label in France and was captured in performances of astonishingly high fidelity in the Netherlands. Grooving into vinyl a substantial portion of Broonzy’s shows in the titular city, Liberation Hall’s Live in Amsterdam 1953 is available November 25 for Record Store Day Black Friday.
To appropriately comprehend the level of Big Bill Broonzy’s popularity, please consider his prolific output across the decade of the Great Depression. The brutal 1930s economic downturn decimated the young record industry, which had been thriving before the crash, and snuffed out recording opportunities for dozens of bluesmen, with a handful of those musicians later “rediscovered” in connection with the folk music boom of the 1950s-’60s. Broonzy was an early catalyst-beneficiary of that boom, and would’ve surely experienced further success had he not died in ’58.
Broonzy’s late ’40s sabbatical from touring (reportedly through doctor’s orders) found him working as a janitor at Iowa State University. It didn’t take him long to return to activity, and when he did there was a comfortable shift into folk blues mode as he kept company with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Pete Seeger.
That Big Bill choose to hang around with ol’ Pete and Studs Terkel as he pivoted into a somewhat easygoing style no doubt ruffled the feathers of many a subsequent blues purist, particularly as the two Yazoo volumes of his early stuff, The Young Big Bill Broonzy 1928-1936 and Do That Guitar Rag: 1928-1935 are loaded with hokum smokers, wicked rags, and uncut bluesy oomph. Columbia’s Roots N’ Blues comp Good Time Tonight is also an excellent survey of his more urban 1930s motions that benefit from the cleaned up sound that was the Roots N’ Blues series specialty.
Chicago, IL | Dave’s Records goes out in a blaze of glory: Last week, beloved Lincoln Park vinyl shop Dave’s Records announced some sad news: after 20 years, it’s closing for good. Store owner Dave Crain tells Gossip Wolf the last day will be in December, but he hasn’t confirmed an exact date. Crain opened Dave’s Records in 2002 in a former 2nd Hand Tunes location, and about a year and a half ago the whole building was sold. The new owners have told Crain they intend to knock down and replace the building, so even though he renewed the shop’s lease last year, he knows that the writing is on the wall. “Selling it didn’t seem like an option to me,” Crain says. “Starting at a new location, I thought about—but I’ve seen people move, and it takes a while till people figure out that you didn’t just close up. And then there was option three, which is the option I’m taking—which is to go out in 
Montreal, CA | 8 Of Montreal’s Most-Loved Record Stores & Where To Find Them: If we left out your favourite, let us know! Spotify and Tidal plays simply don’t hit the same as a crisp vinyl according to many, especially Montreal hipsters (and legitimately cool people). Montreal’s thriving music scene includes a network of 
Tony Williams, Play or Die (MIG Music) Gone 25 years, Tony Williams was one of the key drummers during the salad days of jazz fusion in the ’70s and left an indelible mark on jazz history with his work with Miles Davis. It’s rare that any previously released or out-of-print music surfaces from Williams of late, but Record Store Day fans will be able to pick up a recording from 1980 that for some reason was only released in a limited edition of 500 copies. Now, 2,000 copies will be released of a trio outing that also included two alumni of the drummer’s group Lifetime: Tom Grant and Patrick O’Hearn.
Ron Carter, Finding the Right Notes (IN + OUT Records) This is a companion album to the PBS documentary Finding the Right Notes on jazz bassist Ron Carter. Carter is the most recorded bassist in jazz history and this album works as a nice television soundtrack, but it is also a bespoke audiophile release. The highlights here include concert recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival, at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and at the Blue Note club in New York. Some of the collaborators include Stanley Clarke, Bill Frisell, Christian McBride, and Jon Batiste. This double-album, audiophile deluxe edition was mastered and pressed in Germany on 180-gram virgin vinyl and comes in a gatefold jacket, with poly-lined inner sleeves and a resealable outer sleeve. The album and television special mark a valedictory lap that celebrates one of the true legends in jazz history. B+
Best album covers of the year unveiled for 2022: A new exhibition is putting the 50 best record cover designs of 2022 on show, along with a retrospective celebrating album art that goes back to 1949. Even though most of us don’t buy vinyl anymore, record cover art remains a vital part of music marketing and, indeed, the music fan’s experience. Whether it’s having Graham Norton hold up a physical album cover on TV or seeing a digital version as you listen on Spotify, these evocative designs remain central to our enjoyment of music. But if there’s a certain genre you’re not into or particular artists pass you by, it’s easy to miss out on some of the best works of album art. To right that wrong, Art Vinyl has launched its 18th Best Art Vinyl Award—an annual search for 
Zagreb, HR | Croatia Records and Croatia Airlines sign cooperation agreement: The heads of two large national companies, Croatia Records director Želimir Babogredac and Croatia Airlines CEO Jasmin Bajić, signed a cooperation agreement today at the premises of Croatia Records. The companies with headquarters in Zagreb and with a regional and international reputation will, with this agreement, provide numerous benefits to all their users in the future, related to discounts when buying airline tickets, albums, vinyl records, books about music and other musical content, and they will publish joint actions through social networks. Croatia Records is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, it is the leading record label in the region and a leader in all segments of its business, which with a wide musical repertoire and a large number of performers continues a long-standing tradition and fills 
Miami, FL | Pizza and Vinyl Bar SimplyGood Preserves New York City Hip-Hop and Funk: Silver lamps dangle above the cozy, dimly lit space. The industrial cement walls are lined with record sleeves from the Grateful Dead to A Tribe Called Quest. The aroma of New York-style pizza blends naturally with the warm, homey furniture and patrons gathered at SimplyGood Miami. The man behind the space is Max Pierre, who cultivated his New York City roots and love for hip-hop into an incubator for local creatives. “I started a pizza shop because I would make pizza for kids on the block. They’d call me pizza man,” Pierre says. “Then I was like hip-hop is my culture. Let me just create a space where I can do all the things that I like and see how people interact with it.” The 48 year old owns more than 
Tokyo, JP | Vinyl production finds groove in Japan, thanks to social media: Sales soar, spurring artists to release new music on records. As “city pop,” a type of Japanese pop music produced in the 1970s and ’80s, wins a new generation of fans around the world, production of phonograph records, the principal medium for recorded music at the time, has more than quadrupled over the past decade in Japan. As city pop gains more exposure through TikTok and other video hosting apps, it has drawn young people to vinyl records, which offer a listening experience that differs from digital music. More artists these days are also releasing new music on records. City pop was fueled by Japanese artists including Mariya Takeuchi, Tatsuro Yamashita, Miki Matsubara, and Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe 40 to 50 years ago. Those artists, in turn, were strongly influenced by Western music. The urban-themed, lighthearted melody lines of the era, and devotion to high production value, are drawing 
